The ForeTech initiative was launched in October 2002 jointly
by ARC Fund - as project coordinator, the CRIMM Foundation
of Romania (Romanian Centre for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises),
the Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH)
of Greece, the University College London, the Victoria University
of Manchester, the Hungarian Ministry of Education, and the
Czech Technology Centre AS CR. An international conference
on Technology Foresight for EU Enlargement, held on
October 3, 2002 in Sofia, marked the kick-off of this project.
'Technology Foresight' is recognized as a valuable instrument
in designing science, technology and innovation policies,
allowing countries to develop or redirect national policies
towards greater specialization, and match the national R&D
potential with economic opportunities.
National Foresight programs have already been implemented
in several newly associated countries like Hungary and the
Czech Republic. ForeTech is a pilot initiative for Bulgaria
and Romania where no foresight activities have been implemented
so far.
The mission of ForeTech is:
(i) to introduce foresight activities in two EU candidate
countries - Bulgaria and Romania, and build upon the experience
and know-how gained by projects and initiatives already
supported by the European Commission and its STRATA Program;
(ii) to build capacity and competence on foresight through
transfer of experience and know how among the consortium
partners in the UK, Hungary and the Czech Republic;
(iii) to contribute to the pool of knowledge on foresight
in Europe by performing a comparative analysis of the foresight
exercises in the four candidate countries participating
in the project; and
(iv) to elaborate recommendations to the European Commission
and policy-makers at other governance levels for specific
measures to support science and technology policies in the
candidate countries.
The overall objective is to raise awareness and build
capacity on foresight in Bulgaria and Romania through partnering
and networking with previous and ongoing foresight activities
in Europe: e.g. in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Malta, Cyprus,
Estonia, the UK, Germany and Greece. The major milestone
at the end of the project is a comparative analysis of the
foresight programs in the four candidate countries participating
in ForeTech, namely Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and the Czech
Republic, providing the basis for elaborating recommendations
to the European Commission for support measures for science
and technology policies in the candidate countries.
Two pilot foresight initiatives are underway in both Bulgaria
and Romania in two identical areas - (i) information and
communication technologies and (ii) biotechnology,
food industry and agriculture. In Bulgaria the focus is
placed on e-government and the application of biotechnologies
in agriculture and food and drinks industry.
An accompanying goal of the ForeTech project is to help establish
a regional network, also called Foresight Bridge for
Malta, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary,
the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland,
Slovenia, Slovakia, Russia, and Ukraine, as a means to promote
networking among various foresight practitioners in these
countries. The Foresight Bridge is a joint initiative
of the ForeTech and eForesee projects - a foresight initiative
for Malta, Cyprus and Estonia.
The Foresight Bridge should give a new impetus to
harness the potential of foresight as a powerful policy instrument
more systematically and more comprehensively, using the heterogeneity
of this group (Candidate, Cohesion, Mediterranean Countries,
and Competitiveness - advanced Scandinavia) as a basis for
new initiatives. To date, 'foresight' has (mostly at national,
but also at regional and European levels) been widely used
for different purposes - e.g. sectoral development, special
regional issues, social orientation, promoting competitiveness,
etc. - leading more or less directly to policy changes. The
Foresight Bridge countries could build a regional platform
allowing for European policies and issues to be taken into
account in a systematic and cooperative manner.
Go to the ForeTech website: foretech.online.bg
|